<p>Here are my options:</p>
<ul>
<li>UToronto Engineering Science (I'd be virtually debt-free coming out of it)</li>
<li>Johns Hopkins Mechanical Engineering/Dean's Innovation Group (I'd be $100k in debt)</li>
</ul>
<p>I intend on pursuing grad school at a US school (MIT, Caltech, etc.) after all of this. Undergraduate research is something that will make me stand out and is something that is important to me. The Dean's Innovation Group at Hopkins will offer me this, but undergrad research at UT will be very limited.</p>
<p>What would you recommend?</p>
<p>$100k debt is way too much for an Engineering degree. Engineers don’t make that kind of money. As such, I would recommend UT over JHU. And undergraduate research is not as important as you think. The two friends I have who got into MIT for their PhD studies did very little research as undergrads. They just had high GPAs (over 3.8) and did well on the GRE.</p>
<p>Take the risk. Do what you think will be best for graduate school in America… 100K you can easily pay off (have your parents pay for it), you will be making a lot of money anyways as an engineer. Whiting school of engineering recently announced tuition reduction (up to 50% using Deanship endowment) to lower the cost of masters degree for JHU students and alumni. I also realize that many graduate engineering programs also offer significant stipends to curb the expensive cost of graduate education.</p>
<p>You can’t pass up an opportunity to research at JHU. Hopkins’ research arm, the Applied Physics Lab conducts as much research in fundamental and applied research; space exploration and advanced development; military test and hardware evaluation; and systems engineering and integration as MIT total ($800 million dollars spent in APL alone compared to $500 million in MIT all together)</p>
<p>Decide for yourself.</p>
<p>Edit: #1 recipient of NASA research funding, Hubble telescope control center on campus, world leader in astronomy research, I think JHU would be good for you. I’m saying this because your username is “Space camper”</p>
<p>Yeah well that’s life. You can’t afford it, then don’t afford it. I’m just saying that I’ll have a job in the future and my degree will pay for itself.</p>
<p>If you look through the lens of a recent high school graduate, 30K seems like a lot. I just signed a two year lease in these luxury apartments valued at 50K dude, and I’m just a rising junior in college!</p>
<p>What makes you think parents won’t forfeit 100K in debt. My parents did. Why, are you poor or something? Dude, see your degree as an investment that will you can pay back over time. Maybe your undergraduate university will land you into a top graduate degree program. The extra money you will be making from attending a prestigious graduate school will make the 100K worth it. 
I’m not in anyone’s financial situation… but my family is dropping 120K on my education… I’m not trying to force anything onto anyone else. It’s your decision.</p>
<p>@Phead128: I’m sorry but you are pretty stupid. If you seriously think that every parent just has 100k lying around then you have some serious mental problems. You signed a 2 year lease for 50k and your parents payed 120k on your education. </p>
<p>You are a spoiled brat and should never speak again.</p>
<p>Nope, my parents only makes 70K after tax and 401K. I consider myself middle class. I’m not rich or poor. Maybe your parents are lying to you that you can’t afford college. Srry to be absolutely honest with you. I do not care.</p>
<p>Ps. 50K / 3 roommates comes around to 16K i’m not that rich.</p>
<p>Only a complete ■■■■■■ can misinterpret “I’m not in anyone’s financial situation…Can’t afford it, don’t afford it” into assuming every parent has 100K lying around.</p>
<p>If his EFC is 100K, there must be a reason to assume that he can afford 100K for education (which is the basis why I said… ask your parents to pay for it) and pay them back once you get a job like everyone else does in real life.</p>
<p>I’m sorry but my parents aren’t telling me lies yet :)</p>
<p>Also I am not talking about me, I am talking about the fact that you asked the OP if he was poor.</p>
<p>That is something you do not ask.</p>
<p>EDIT: Also you did not mention anything about roommates.</p>
<p>I’m being a real ass for no apparent reason. I will heed your advise and stop posting for a week. :-P</p>
<p>You don’t need to stop posting for a week. I’m just saying that you shouldn’t ask people if they are poor or not. </p>
<p>It is just messed up.</p>
<p>I know. I didn’t properly communicate that I assumed the person had an EFC of 100K and I asked if the reason for rejecting EFC 100K was that he was not rich or “poor” but I’d assuming a person with EFC 100K can cough it up no problem. Misunderstanding of sorts… I’ll definitely communicate it more properly next time. I definitely never meant to ask if he was poor or not no.l</p>
<p>My parents are fully, completely behind me either way. If I chose Hopkins, they are willing to help take out a loan and make it work somehow. If I chose UT, they could keep a relatively comfortable lifestyle because I have a full scholarship there. </p>
<p>Hopkins is paying for approximately 62% of my education. </p>
<p>Any further insight? Based on rankings, UT is a better engineering school than Hopkins, but I want the smaller environment and the opportunity for research so I can get into a US grad school. What should I do?</p>
<p>Unless you are interested in biomedical engineering, it doesn’t make sense to take 100k in debt to go to Hopkins over Toronto. </p>
<p>Toronto has the drawback of being a very big public school (large classes, etc.), but it is also one of the best engineering schools in the world. In fact, Toronto is ranked much higher than JHU for general engineering, see e.g. the [THES engineering ranking](<a href=“http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2008/subject_rankings/technology/”>http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2008/subject_rankings/technology/</a>).</p>
<p>Actually the engineering classes at the university of toronto are not large. Sorry, but this idea that classes in Canada are large is a bit of a misnomer, or larger than those in public schools in the U.S anyway. It depends on program and course, like first year psychology or biology. But you will not be in classes of 500 or so, like some posts would lead you to believe. Engineering is not one of those fields, you will find that the class sizes will be moderate to small in size in this field and will get progressively smaller after freshman year. At least comparable to the class sizes at public universities in the U.S… And it’s an excellent program. </p>
<p>Here is what I found. The first one is for mineral engineering at U of T and the second industrial eng. but they echo what I said in any case:</p>
<p>"Q: How big are the class sizes in engineering?
A: In first year, classes are larger than in senior years because the first year of engineering is common to all students; some lectures are upwards of 100 students, but then you “break off” into tutorial sections and labs which are much smaller, to work on problems and assignments. In senior years, classes get much smaller. In fact, Mineral Engineering has the best instructor-student ratio in senior years because of our small size. Our senior classes have from 10-25 students! The smaller the class, the more one-on-one access you have to your instructor, and creating such an intimate learning environment is something that we pride ourselves on! "</p>
<p>“Class sizes are approximately 80-120 students in 1st and 2nd year and 20-40 students in 3rd and 4th year.”</p>
<p>Additionally being debt freee at U of T will enable you to strongly consider grad studies. in Canada an engineering undergrad degree with an MBA is all the rage.</p>
<p>Today’s Baltimore Sun had an article that quoted a Hopkins’ official saying that
24.2 percent of tuition revenues go directly to financial aid. Now my question to you is do you want your loan money paying someone else’s financial aid? Go to Toronto.</p>
<p>^ That’s the same for basically all top private schools like Duke, UPenn, Columbia, etc. It’s not just Hopkins, fyi. It simply used it as an example.</p>
<ul>
<li>MD Mom, why ELSE do you think the national average total costs for ALL private universities in the country has more than doubled over the last 10-15 years? Just about every private school practices this form of “tuition reduction” for the lower class. How else can the high-achieving son of a walmart greeter attend the same school as the high-achieving son of a multi-billionaire if the tuition is the same for both and there were no financial aid?</li>
</ul>
<p>As each college year has seen more applicants with more applicants aiming for higher and more elite schools and from more socio-economically diverse backgrounds, there is obviously going to be some subsidization that takes place.
Also, with all the upgrades in accomodations for today’s students like swimming pools, climbing walls, suites, new buildings, etc, what else can you expect but high price?</p>